


A different life.

by ShabbyChicGeek3



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers - Freeform, Bad guys, Clintasha - Freeform, F/M, Fighting, Red Room, bad guy clintasha, otp
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-03
Updated: 2015-01-21
Packaged: 2018-02-27 23:21:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2710397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShabbyChicGeek3/pseuds/ShabbyChicGeek3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On that day when they first met, one of them was sent to kill the other. But luckily, Natasha Romanov made a different call and saved Clint's life. She convinces him to join her as a freelance mercenary, and things go well for a few years. But what will happen when they get a high paying job- Where they have to take down the Avengers?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by some wonderful people on Tumblr, I hope you like it!! Really excited about this!!

It was supposed to be an easy mission. Go in, take down the target, and get out. But, on that day, Natasha Romanoff made a different call and spared Clint Barton’s life. They had been fighting for almost half an hour, she was pretty sure the man in front of her had broken at least a couple of her ribs, and she continuously had to wipe blood away from her left eye, as it streamed thickly out of the cut now on her forehead.Natasha had tracked him, found him, fought him and won. The next step was one of the easiest- Kill him. But as the Black Widow leveled the gun in her hand, and Clint Barton stared coldly back at her, not flinching, she found she just couldn’t pull the trigger. 

She was so tired of obeying everyones orders.Wasn’t that why she had broken away from the KGB in the first place? The whole reason her work was all freelance now? So that she could decide what she would do, who she would have to kill? Natasha no longer had a boss to answer to, but was still getting used to making her own decisions. Now, not sure what to do, she didn’t drop the gun, didn’t even move it the slightest bit off target- Instead she did something more unusual. She spoke to her victim. 

“You’re a good fighter. It’s really too bad I have to kill you. I think you hold the record for longest fight I have had with someone before destroying them.” Clint Barton grinned- He was about to die, and was covered in his own blood, and he actually grinned at her. Who was this guy? “Well, ya know, it really is too bad you have to kill me. Wanna let me go? I promise I won’t tell anyone I beat you. I’ll just say that you couldn’t kill me because you thought I was way too attractive- And it’s true, right? I mean, look at my face, how can you possibly kill a specimen like me?” The archer opened his mouth again, and head throbbing in pain, not in the mood for witty post fight banter, Natasha moved her gun warningly closer to him. Barton shut up. 

Natasha was trying to think- She knew whatever she decided to do in the next few minutes might change the rest of her life. Her orders were to kill Shields golden boy, and then she would get her money. It wasn’t even that much, she had only agreed to the job because she had been in the area anyway. But after fighting with this man, seeing how skilled he was, Natasha didn’t want to kill him. It would be a waste of one of the best fighters she had ever seen. Sure, he wasn’t perfect, but he sure had a lot of potential. 

Natasha had never imagined herself as the kind of person who wanted or needed a partner in her line of work. She had done well enough on her own up until now. But what if she took Barton in, trained him, taught him a few of her tricks….. It would be a lot of work, especially depending on how loyal to Shield he was. But it might just be worth it. After all, even the Black Widow needed some backup every now and then. At the very least maybe this Hawkeye could be her getaway driver, or live up to his name and keep an eye out for her on undercover missions.

Of course first she was going to have to interview him, see just how loyal he was to Shield. 

And if things didn’t work out, she could just dispose of him as planned. 

Natasha was still pointing her gun at Barton, it didn’t waver as she spoke. “Do you want to live?” It looked like Hawkeye was thinking for a moment, probably looking for some smartass comeback. She took a menacing step closer. “I said, do you want to live?” He gulped. “Yeah, yeah I want to live! Living is good, I like living. Unless you want to keep me alive so you can torture Shield secrets out of me before you shoot me…. I don’t want that so much. And I hope you don’t want to hold me hostage, because no matter how valuable I think I am, Shield doesn’t do hostages. Not big fans of negotiating. Why do you ask? Are you going to let me go?” He almost looked hopeful as he said this, Natasha allowed herself to smile. “Yeah, no. If you want to live, how would you like to try a new job?” Clint hesitated, bit his lip. “Um, how long do I have to think about this?” Natasha had been slowly lowering the gun bit by bit. She lifted it back up. “I don’t know, depends on how long it takes for me to pull the trigger.”

Clint gulped. “Ok then, guess it couldn’t hurt to try a new job for a little while…. Change of scenery and all that. Better than getting a bullet in my head.” Natasha liked him a bit more now. He was willing to adapt to new situations, he was a survivor. Like her. Good. “Ok, well, if you would like to keep your skull bullet free, you need to do exactly as I say.”

Ten minutes later, Clint Barton was walking out of the abandoned building, with Natasha Romanoff next to him. He had told her no Shield agents were watching them, the he worked alone for the most part. Didn’t like people hanging around telling him what to do. She hadn’t exactly believed him. So, now they were putting on a charade, looking like a normal couple going for a walk. No one would have noticed the small dart Natasha held in her hand, as she pressed it against Barton’s hand and pretended to cling to his arm. She was ready to try and take him on as a partner and work with him, maybe someday she would trust him. But today was not that day. If he made a wrong move, if Shield agents suddenly swarmed over them, that dart would make sure the archer would not live to take another step.

The two walked quickly for a few minutes, Clint silently wondering if maybe he HAD been an idiot for refusing to bring any backup with him on this mission. At least wishing he had worn that stupid tracker that Coulson had wanted him to bring. Oh well, it was too late now. He would just have to see how this situation worked out, and do what he did best- survive. He had worked for Shield for several years, and he fought for what they stood for. And he had thought he was prepared to die for them. Apparently, he wasn’t. Clint liked living his life, and wasn’t ready to just give it up so quickly. He could at least see what the Black Widow would offer, before refusing, and getting a bullet in his brain. 

Natasha led him to a car, and nodded her head that he should get in. He obeyed. Barton wondered if he should be scared now, after all he was being taken hostage by the terrifying Black Widow. But he just felt the pain of his wounds, and curiosity about what was going to happen next. 

Natasha got into the car, looked over to make sure Barton was in his seat, and without hesitating reached over and pressed a small metal disk on top of his hand. Instantly electricity coursed through his body, and then he was knocked out, unconscious in the seat. Natasha took a minutes to check out his pockets, and though she did find a small knife,he had neglected to mention, it seemed Barton had not been lying about not being bugged, or having a tracker on him. Satisfied she would not be followed for now, the Black Widow drove away.  
_____________________________________


	2. Chapter 2

When Clint woke up his head was aching, but he was surprised that he didn't feel as horrible as he should right now, considering the extent of his injuries and the fact he had not had time to tend them before The Widow zapped him unconscious. Then again he was also surprised to find he was still alive- When she had pressed one of her Widow Bites down on his hand, Clint thought he was a goner for sure. So, yeah, not being dead was a pleasant surprise. One of the things the archer was not surprised about was to see Black Widow sitting in a chair next to the bed he was laying on top of. Of course she was right here, he was pretty much her prisoner. As if she would give him even one minute alone to figure out how to get out of this situation intact. 

He was just going to have to play along with this for as long as possible, and see what happened. He had only agreed to work with the Black Widow because the only other option was instant death. Of course he was still loyal to Shield, he just wasn’t ready to die for them just yet. He would just deal with this situation until he found the right moment to get out. 

The Black Widow was staring at him. She didn’t say anything, and didn’t look away. It was making him feel extremely uncomfortable. He knew she was evaluating every move he made, his facial expressions, as soon as he spoke she would be calculating each word, trying to decide what he was going to do next. Going undercover had never been Barton’s specialty- He was always the one who took down the mark, when another agent was doing the undercover stuff. He just wasn’t very good at lying, pretending to be someone else. Well, if he wanted to stay alive, he was going to have to improve his lying and acting skills pretty damn fast. 

He cut right to the chase. “Where are we?” He asked. Black Widow just shrugged. “What do you want me to do?” Another shrug. “Can I have some water?” This time instead of shrugging, the Black Widow stood up, and opened a small fridge that was under a sink. The sterile dull room was obviously in a hotel. Clint couldnt help but wonder how the slight woman now sitting back down next to him had managed to get him in here when he was still unconscious. Maybe he had woken up long enough to walk in here, and just didn’t remember it? It didn’t matter. He didn’t have to know that to get out of here. Or did he? What if she wasn’t working alone?

Clint took the bottle of water that the Widow offered him, and then hesitated before taking a drink. “How do I know this isn’t drugged?” He asked, not exactly eager to gulp down drugs that might mess with his ability to adequately lie, or, you know, murder him. The Russian rolled her eyes, and grabbed the bottle back from him. “Idiot. It’s not poisoned. Why would I not kill you, knock you out, drive you to a populated place where people saw me dragging you out of my car, and THEN poison you when you wake up? Honestly, if you think I would do that, you might be even dumber than I thought.” She cracked the seal on the bottle, took a few swallows, and handed it back to Clint. She hadn’t eased his fears about other mood altering, tongue slipping drugs, he was still worried about those, the water didn’t seem to be deadly though. Plus if he refused to drink the water now it would just raise suspicion. He reluctantly took the bottle, and let the liquid soothe his parched throat, and relieve some of the ache in his head.

As he lowered the bottle, Natasha spoke. “You lost a lot of blood from that cut in your leg. You have a black eye, probably from where I whacked you with that pipe, and I had to stitch up that knife wound where I sliced your arm open. But other than sporting a few new scars to add to your rather impressive collection, you should be fine.” Clint sat up more in the bed, and looked down at his body, and sure enough was surprised to realize his wounds had been bandaged and tended to. “You did this?” He asked stupidly, not thinking past his surprise. She rolled her eyes, “I think we already established that if I had wanted to kill you, I would have done so by now birdy.” 

Clint put the water on a table next to the bed, and sat up fully. As he looked the Black Widow in the eyes, he found himself wishing he had some kind of weapon. Any weapon. Not to harm her so much as to protect himself. He already had felt the absence of the tiny knife he hid in an inner pocket, and knew he was basically defenseless now except for hand to hand combat. And with her formidable reputation, he wasn’t sure how useful his skills would be against hers. Barton scanned the room, picking out things he might use as a weapon if he had to, then she spoke.

“I’m not an idiot you know.” She said this calmly, as if they had just been talking about this possibility though Clint had not said a word. He smiled, he hoped charmingly. “Excuse me?” She leaned in closer to him, he resisted the urge to back away. “I, am not, and idiot. I am fully aware that at this moment you are still loyal to Shield, and view me as your enemy. You might want me dead, you might just be waiting for a chance to escape so that you can go back to you happy little life, blindly following whatever orders you are given. The only reason you are sitting here right now is not because you magically want to work with one of Shield’s enemies. It’s because you wan’t to survive. Am I wrong?” 

Clint swallowed hard, trying to decide what to say next. Should he deny this, and lie? If he told the truth was he going to be killed? Would she know he was lying? How did she knew he was lying? Oh gosh he was going to die in this room. He opened his mouth to talk, though he was not sure what he was going to say, she held up a hand to stop him. “Do not lie to me. I already know you are loyal to Shield, if you weren’t, they wouldn’t have hired you. I don’t like playing games. I know that you do not trust me, and that you plan to return to Shield as soon as you can. You might change your mind about that, and you might not. I just want you to know that you are not fooling anyone for a minute. Right now, you are not allying yourself with me, and you are not doing Shield’s work by shadowing me, and planning to kill me. I know the only thing you are doing is surviving. And I wan’t you to know that I know that. Still, I also would like to work with you. Ok?”

She stared at him calmly as she said this, she didn’t appear to be annoyed, or mad. She was just stating the facts. And she also had seen right through him in less than a minute, when he had only spoken a few times. Clint didn’t know what to say, but again she interrupted before he could speak. I’m not going to kill you just because you don’t believe me, because you think I’m the bad guy. That would be idiotic. I’ll give you time to make up your mind, let you see my side of things before you choose yours. Let me explain how I see things, and then you can choose what you want to do. I was sent to kill you, but I don’t want to. So here’s the deal. I will talk to you, and explain why you should work with me. And if at the end, you still don’t want to, you can trade me Shield intel in exchange for your release. Unless you try to kill me, in which case, I am sorry to say, I will kill you. Deal?”

This time it seemed she wanted him to speak. This was actually a better situation than any he could have hoped for- Unless she was lying, she wasn’t planning on taking his life anytime soon. Instead of pretending to be her partner for who knows how long, he could feed her some of the fake intel Shield gave all of it’s agents, that they could use in case of situations like this. Of course if she didn’t fall for that, Clint was sure he could think of some information to give her. Unless he did something stupid, he was going to live. He would just have to listen to her argument for why he should join her, hope she didn’t explode when he refused, feed her the lies, and get the hell out of here. It was a dream situation. Who knows, if he played his cards right maybe he could even gain some valuable information about the elusive Widow. 

He smiled again, held out his hand for her to shake. “Nice. I listen to you, tell you my decision, I don’t kill you, you don’t kill me, Fury doesn’t send a squad after you to avenge my death, everyones happy. It’s a deal.”  
_________________________________________________________________

Barton was in the bathroom, cleaning himself up, and possibly looking for weapons and a way to escape. But Natasha didn’t think that was what he was doing, the deal she had made with him was too good for him to jeopardize by doing something stupid. And besides, if that was what he was doing, it was useless. She had already checked the room herself, and removed everything that could possibly be used for weapon or escape. 

He had been unconscious for roughly six hours. Two of those hours had been spent getting to this hotel, one had been used cleaning up her injuries, and then his. So she’d had three hours to do nothing but ponder the sanity of this entire idea, and decide what she would say to convince this man to work with her. She had been keeping an eye out for a reliable partner for a while- One who wouldn’t get to close to her, but she could fight well with. Someone who was skilled, and had the same thirst for survival as her. Of course the person she thought might actually be a good partner had to be working for Shield of all places. At least if he had been from somewhere more corrupt it could have been easier to convince him of her morales and ideas. But Shield? Those moral watchdogs could convince everyone under their thumb that everyone BUT them was evil. Ugh. Maybe if she was lucky it would turn out this archer was actually with Hydra.Sure half of their employees were brainwashed, but those who weren’t would probably be easier to bring around to her way of thinking. 

She had gone over things she could tell this man for almost three hours. Wondering how to find the right balance of truth and lies, how little of her past she could reveal, what stories would be the most effective. She was almost on the verge of giving up on this entire stupid idea, maybe she should just stun him again and dump him off with a nice little note at a Shield safe house. “Hey, think you lost something! Might want to think twice before sending one of your birds after the spider again.” No, duh, that was idiotic, that note wouldn’t even be funny. This entire idea was idiotic. Where had she put here spare widow bites? She could use one from her wrist, but those were all lethal… Maybe she should find something to knock him unconscious with instead.

Too late, the bathroom door opened and Barton came out, his hair damp from the shower. If Natasha had been prepared right now would be the perfect moment to take him down, and avoid all of this. If she tried anything now, things could go wrong, and get very messy (and loud) fast. She was going to have to go through with her stupid plan now. Well, or kill him. But she had already decided she didn't want to do that, wasn’t that the whole point of this stupidity? To make her own choices, decide who she wanted to kill, and who she would let live?

She wanted Hawkeye to live.

Natasha was sitting at a small table that had been crammed into a corner of the small hotel room, and she nodded towards the other chair, silently urging Clint to join her. He walked over and sat down without saying a word. Natasha absently ran a finger over the gun holstered at her side, reassuring herself she was in command of this situation. She still wasn’t quite sure what to say. So, she just started talking, saying the first thing that she thought of.

“Why did you join Shield, Barton?” He flinched as she said his name. Ok, so admittedly she had not spent all her time waiting for him to wake up bandaging wounds and thinking of what to say. She had managed to do some hacking into Shield, and gotten some information on her new “friend”. Not a lot- She needed to get to her good, and a solid internet connection for that. Still, she had managed to learn that Hawkeye was actually Clint Barton, he had joined Shield almost four years ago, and though he had tried a couple partners (A Bobbi, and a Kate. She was looking forward to hacking into their files too.) neither stuck and he currently worked alone. Natasha would have loved to read through more information- His application to the organization, training reports, mission reports, but that required another more complicated level of hacking that went beyond a hotels internet connection and the out of date computer hotel guests were allowed to use down in the lobby. So, she didn’t know all the information about Barton yet. She would just have to interrogate it out of him. 

The archer sighed heavily, leaned back in his chair. “I joined Shield because I was down on my luck, fell in with a bad crowd, I was working a dead end job. My current handler found me, made me an offer, and I accepted. It was nice knowing I was going to be making a difference, but I’m not gonna lie, that wasn’t the first reason I accepted. I mean, it’s nice now knowing how the work I’ve done has affected the world, but at the time I was just excited to be getting a regular paycheck.” Natasha nodded, dissecting this information, and planning her next question. “So you didn’t seek out Shield, they came to you.” “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s what I just said.” Clint gazed steadily at her, and she wondered just what information he was withholding from her. A man couldn’t go so easily from a circus performer, to an assassin just like that, it was insane. Hopefully she could hack more about this backstory later. 

“Where do you think you would be if Shield hadn’t hired you?” She asked, her fingers were still absently stroking the gun at her side. Clint answered after a moment. “Probably still at the circus. Who knows, maybe by now I’d be one of the headline acts. Or maybe I’d be dead by now.” Natasha raised an eyebrow at this, and he just shrugged. “Like I said, I fell in with a bad crowd.” Natasha wanted to learn more about this, but the information wasn’t crucial and could wait. 

It was time for her to provide some information. Her hand rested on the gun, it felt comforting in her hand. She wasn’t used to talking about herself, but felt she had to in this case.

“An organization approached me when I was very young. They took me in, trained me, gave me my skills, and set me loose to use them when they ordered me to.” The KGB?” Barton asked. Natasha nodded, not willing to discuss The Red Room with this man- not yet. Maybe not ever. Not willing to explain any of that nightmare. For now him thinking she had always worked with The KGB would work fine for what she was telling him. “I was grateful they took me in. I did the jobs they sent me out on, when I returned they told me I should be proud for serving my country. They told me I was doing the right thing, and I believed them, because they believed everything they were doing was right.” Clint was frowning now, and interrupted. “Ok, yeah, but everyone knows that what the KGB does is wrong. I mean, it takes common sense to look at their history, the jobs they are sending you out on to realize that.” Natasha silenced him with a glare before continuing. “I know. But the secret is, that they don’t think what they are doing is wrong. Hydra, Shield, governments around the world, most all of them think that they are doing the right thing. No matter if that thing is dictatorship, a democracy, a world where everyone must share the same beliefs, every organization that fights, does so for what they believe in. Because most of the time, they think they are making the world a better place. That they are making the right choices- It’s not like any of these groups are founded wanting to be the Bad Guy’s Barton. 

Clint was leaning back in his seat, eyebrows furrowed in a frown. “Ok, fine, I admit that makes sense. But it’s still a pretty flimsy argument, you are going to have to work harder to convince me I should leave Shield. I mean, I am not some brainwashed idiot. I know that Shield has done some questionable stuff, but honestly, who hasn’t? I know that they almost always make the right choices, choices that I feel confident in. Ones that I feel good about. I know some people could debate Shield aren’t always the good guys- But they are a lot better than most any other organization that would hire me.”

Natasha smiled, as if she pitied him. “Ok, maybe Shield makes good decisions in what they do, who they kill. But at the end of the day, they are the ones making those decisions about what you will do. They tell you where to go, who to shoot, what to steal. And if you don’t feel right about a mission, are you able to go to your boss and tell him you would rather not do this? Does he listen to you? Respect your opinion? Or are you expected to blindly follow orders, that are part of complex plans and games so secretive that no one ever fully knows exactly what is going on?   
Aren’t you tired of just following and obeying without question Barton? If you work with me, we can make our own decisions. Change the world in ways that WE feel are right. Aren’t you tired of being the unquestioning obedient Shield errand boy? Don’t you think it’s time for you to make your own decisions? If you come with me, you will be able to choose every job that you accept. If you don’t feel right about going through with one, you can change your mind. If you are sent to kill someone, maybe you can spare them, and offer to let them work with you instead.” Natasha smirked as she said this last bit, Barton was not amused.

Part of Clint wanted to say this was insane, the Black Widow was just spouting conspiracy theory crap to get him away from Shield. He wouldn’t fall for it so easily, it was stupid. But, another, more serious part of the archer, agreed with what she was saying. Clint was tired of being kept in the dark, never knowing enough about the work he was doing, being surrounded by secrets. He was sick of being yelled at by his superiors for sparing lives he did not feel justified in taking. He was sick of being woken up in the middle of the night, and told he was being sent out on a mission in half an hour. And no they couldn’t tell him where he was going. Or what his job would be until he arrived. No, they couldn’t explain why he had to kill that person. Please, stop asking questions. Do your job, and know you are making a difference.

In that moment, Clint Barton did not make a snap decision to abandon everything he had ever known, and become an enemy for one of the largest intelligent agencies in the world. He did not choose to be the Black Widow’s partner, and begin a life as a mercenary for hire. But Natasha knew that before long, he would do all of these things. Because instead of saying she was insane, that he did not feel that way at all or simply explaining he would rather give Shield intel than work with her, Clint Barton sat back in his chair, and requested that she tell him more about what exactly they would do if he agreed to work with her. 

 

________________________________________________________

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So basically Clint is tired of being kept in the dark, and not knowing the secrets of Shield, or even the details of jobs he is doing. Now he and Natasha will work together, as freelance mercenaries. In Clint’s case probably more accepting jobs that he feels will make the world a better place, or at least remove some of the evil from it. Natasha likes working freelance more because it allows her to make her own decisions, but as she works more with Clint, she will stop accepting any job that she can and focus, like her partner, on missions that will bring more good than evil. Next chapter will explain more about exactly what these two do, how they get jobs, ect. Of course they like to think that they do more jobs that are for good- but people can lie. Strike Team Delta can receive the wrong information. Or maybe, they are given an offer for a nasty mission with such a high pay check, they just can’t refuse….. Stay tuned for the next update, and please review guys!!!!!!!!!!!! I worked really hard on this chapter, and would love to get some feedback!!!!!!!! (Also Shield will view these two as villains, but that explanation can wait for the next chapter. Don’t worry, it will be a plausible explanation and will be awesome! -I hope……-) PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!


	3. Chapter 3

A partnership is not something that can appear overnight. Especially one between two people who carve a living out of a world full of lies, and deception, manipulation and death. In fact considering everything Hawkeye had been through, what Black Widow had survived, people would think neither could trust anyone ever again. Yet somehow, eventually they did learn to trust one another. They worked together, and then they forged a relationship as partners. And though neither would admit it, eventually that relationship became a friendship. And maybe then something more.

It was hard at first, neither of them could deny that simple fact. After a few days of talking, arguing, challenging one another’s views, and a few fights that almost resulted in permanent injury, Clint had come around to working with Natasha. But he had a few conditions- He wanted to know all the details of any missions either of them went on. He was sick and tired of secrets when it came to his work and the jobs he carried out. Natasha could not make him work a job he was not comfortable with. She agreed, but only if he would not try and talk her out of deciding to do a job or not, and did not pry into her past. They shook hands, and had a deal. It would be a long time before either started to trust the other. 

They didn’t even try to explain to Shield where one of their best agents had gone to at first- After all, that did give them a rather lengthy head start t get away, and work to crete their new lives. For a few months rumors flew about what had happened to the mighty Hawkeye- He had been killed, Shield had promoted him to a job of such secrecy everyone had to think he was dead, he had been kidnapped by the Black Widow, the Black Widow had kidnapped him and turned him over to the KGB. Barton had been chosen for special testing and would be Shields next Super Soldier, he was being experimented on in Russia, was having Shield secrets teased out of him. 

Every agent had their own theory of what had happened to Hawkeye, but none were informed when Fury learned what had actually happened. 

“Did I hear you right Agent Coulson? Please tell me you did not just say what I think you said! Tell me your phone connection is messed up, and I did not hear you right. Maybe you said Barton killed the Black Widow? That she killed him? Please tell me that you found one of their bodies. Answer me Coulson. Tell me again, what is happening!” On the other end of the phone, Phil Coulson was pacing back and forth in a small hotel room, trying to figure out how to fix this horrific mess and decide what to do. 

“Sir, I was with the extraction team, we were transporting the political prisoner as ordered. We were halfway to the final point, when the tires were shot out from under us. We skidded across the road, and Agent Mitch was shot in the shoulder. We evacuated the car, and before we could do anything else- The prisoner had been shot. In the head. We couldn’t do anything for him, he was dead before he hit the ground.”

Nick Fury was still shouting when he spoke. “So, you failed to escort a political prisoner from point A, to point B. I do not see how that means Barton, an agent that YOU recruited, is now working with one of Shields most wanted, hostile enemies. Did you see him with her? Did he leave you a little note? Get to the point man!”

Phil was running his hand through his thinning hair, thinking about how he did not get paid enough for this job. “We saw her, sir. Along with two other agents, I can confirm seeing her, without doubt it was the Black Widow. I’m sending you video we got from a security camera in the area, it has a confirmed clear shot where you can see without doubt that it’s her.” 

“What the hell does that have to do with Barton? I thought intelligence said she killed him, when Barton failed to take her out. Just because she showed up does not mean that he’s working with her.”

Coulson braced himself for the bombshell he was about to drop- and prepared himself for the shouting that was probably about to flood his eardrums. “The tires, they were shot out with arrows sir. I sent them express to the nearest headquarters, and they just confirmed, through multiple ways, that the arrows came from Barton- and he’s the one who fired them on us.”

When the phone was silent, Phil was sure the connection had been dropped. “Sir? Did you hear me? They are working together. Maybe because she is making him- or maybe she has swayed him over to her side.” Fury took a deep breath, before speaking. “So let me make sure that I have this straight. You, recruited Clint Barton a couple years ago. Said he had the most potential you had ever seen in a new recruit, so, you took him and trained him. Made him one of the best agents that we have. And then, you convinced me the only person who could take down the Black Widow was your Agent Barton. So, we sent him down to take her out! We didn’t hear from him after that, we decided, he was dead and that we had lost a good agent! Now, you are telling me, this agent YOU recruited and trained, is working with THE Black Widow AGAINST US.”

Phil was holding the phone away from his ear, but could hear the director shouting clearly through the other end. “Do you realize what a mess this is Coulson? The consequences of what could happen, if Black Widow, and Hawkeye are teamed up against Shield?!?” Coulson opened his mouth to speak, explain that the two did not seem to be specifically against Shield, but rather were something like mercenaries for hire. It didn’t seem like they were aligned with, or against any one organization in particular. But before he could speak, he was interrupted. “You need to fix this! NOW. Get back to headquarters so that we can start assembling a team to take Romanoff down- Barton too if we have to.” The conversation ended with the click of Fury’s phone being closed.

It took Phil less than ten minutes to pack his bag, and ordered the rest of his team to meet him in the second car they had rented downstairs in the parking lot. 

He went down to wait for everyone- Only to find that they were going to need a third rental car. Or at least someone who knew how to change a tire. A new arrow was sticking out of the front left wheel, and as Agent Coulson walked towards it, he saw that this one had a scrap of paper wrapped securely around the end. 

In Barton’s handwriting, was a short message. “This isn’t personal. I appreciate what you did for me- But I fight with her now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was just to get the Clintasha relationship jump started a bit, and explain that Shield does now know one of their best agents, is fighting with one of the worlds top criminals. I wanted to write about the two of them working together more in this chapter, but this is what came out when I wrote, soooo if you didn't like it, too bad ;D (But I reeeaally hope you liked it, and I will be so happy if you review!Happy New Year!)


	4. Chapter 4

Clint and Natasha worked together for years- They carried out missions, healed each other’s wounds, listened to one another opinions, they killed to for one another. But it was years before they began to trust each other. Honestly, it was amazing that they ever did grow any kind of relationship, let along a trusting and meaningful one. They were each so damaged, they had been betrayed and lied to and left behind. Admittedly Clint trusted the Black Widow before she trusted him. He liked to believe the best in people, he wanted to trust Natasha. 

On the other hand, Natasha saw her new partner as just that. A partner, who would help her carry out missions, cover her back, heal her wounds. She saw Clint as a person who was helpful now, but might turn her back on her at any time. She was prepared to kill him, if she so much as suspected that he might betray her. 

After years of working together, Hawkeye wanted to become friends with his partner. He tried talking with her, gave her gifts that she didn’t open, every morning when he went to get coffee, he always brought her back a drink. Natasha never drank anything he brought her, but Clint continued to buy Starbucks for her anyway. He looked at is a game, and had fun trying to guess what coffee Natasha would actually drink. The two of them were co-workers, at their best they could say they were partners when they fought together, and their chemistry worked best together. They were not a team. Definitely not friends, no matter how hard Clint tried to make that happen.

Clint enjoyed his new work- He liked choosing his own jobs, doing what he felt was right. He liked knowing all of the details for his jobs, and honestly he enjoyed fighting with Natasha. She was the best he had ever fought with, and she always got the job done. Still, he wished that she was a bit friendlier. He spent months trying to build trust between the two of them- it wasn’t until two years after they first met that Natasha began to drop her walls, and tentatively start to trust the archer.

And all it took for that to happen was for Clint to almost die for Natasha.

They were on a mission in Russia, they knew it would be a rough one, but they had no idea that the entire thing had been a setup, a plot the KGB had set up to rope Team Blackhawk in. It sounded relatively easy compared to other jobs they had done, Natasha couldn’t do much work i Russia, far to much of a risk an enemy could could spot her, and turn her in. So, the plan was that Clint was going to go undercover at a party, plant a poison in the victims drink, grab some appetizers for the road, and get out. Hey, he WAS in charge of planning his own missions, why not have some fun with them?

But this mission had not been fun at all. Quite the opposite to be honest. Turns out there were no appetizers, there was no victim, no party. As soon as Clint entered the house decked out in his tuxedo, a bag was placed over his head, a rag soaked in chloroform crammed into his mouth. The last thing he remembered was having his Comm Device ripped from his ear, and being thrown into some kind of car.

He woke up to someone punching him in the face. For the next 24 hours Clint was punched, cut, burnt his arm was broken and more. People yelled at him in Russian, and not understanding, Clint couldn’t even try and answer them. Not that he would anyway.

Finally, someone who spoke english came to see him. The stranger pretended to be nice at first, but when Clint refused to give any information, things quickly turned ugly. The man yelled the same questions over and over, and still Clint refused to give any answers.

“Who have you worked for!” Clint snorted, though the action sent sparks of pain up his nose. “People.” “What information have you collected?” “Well, I seem to have learned people her aren’t as nice as I was told they would be. That’s information, right?” A punch to the face made Clint see stars, he blinked them away as more questions were asked in rapid progression. “What can you tell us about Shield? Why did you leave? Do you know about the Avengers Initiative? Have you heard of the Red Room? Do you have any information about Natasha Romanoff? Where is Natasha Romanoff?” 

At the last question, the man finally got a reply. “She’s right behind you” Natasha said, leveling her gun, and shooting a bullet into the skull of Clint’s interrogator as the man turned around. She calmly stepped over his body, and quickly released Clint from the ropes tying him to his chair. “I told you this wasn’t worth the mission Barton, honestly, I swear this is the absolute last time I’m coming to Russia, and you can never convince me otherwise.” Clint managed to smile, “Ok, don’t worry I won’t fight you on that one. Can you get me out of here?” Natasha nodded, and handed her partner a gun. “Of course, come on, just follow me.” Clint smirked, “I’m disappointed in you, you couldn’t find a single bow in this hellhole?” Natasha just rolled her eyes, “Shut up Barton, or I’m leaving you here.”

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Clint did not remember how they got out of there. He did not remember how many people Natasha killed to get them to safety, he did not recall her shoving him into a car and driving him to one of their safe houses. He did not remember how she yelled at him the whole drive to stay awake, or when she told him if he fell asleep, he might not wake up.

When Clint woke up he didn’t know where he was, he just kew his partner was with him. Natasha was sitting on the edge of his bed, an uncharacteristic look of concern on her face. She smiled a bit at him, and that honestly freaked Clint out more than the realization that he was covered in bandages and in pain. Natasha never smiled at people unless she was on an undercover missionr- Or at least she never smiled at Clint. 

“Hey, you finally woke up Barton. Good thing too, I think our hosts are catching on that we might not be the most welcome people in this country, we need to be out by tomorrow. We’re at the house of a doctor who owes me a favor, but you’ve been out for a couple days. I think we’re wearing off our welcome.” Clint forced himself to sit up, taking stock of his injuries. “What’s the damage?” He asked, wincing as he readjusted one of his arms that was in a sling. Natasha sighed. “He yanked a few bullets out of you, you had an infection in your leg from one of them, but that’s getting fixed up. You’re arm’s sprained, and you might not want to look in a mirror for a while. They bruised you up pretty good. You have some cuts that got stitched up, and if you care about scars might want to get some plastic surgery for one of the burns on your neck. But you’re lucky, they weren’t trying to kill you. They were just trying to hurt you. They wanted to get information out of you. You’ll live.” 

Clint grimaced, and sighed. “Yeah, I am really lucky. Thanks for getting me out of there. I’m not sure if I could have held out for much longer….. I was worried I was on the verge of giving something away.” He ran his un-slinged hand over his face, and wished he hadn’t when it brought waves of pain. “Ah! Damnit, shouldn’t have done that….. Man this week sucks. Are there any meds in this place? We’re still in Russia, right? There’s gotta be vodka somewhere around here.” “Gosh Barton, that is such a stereotype! We aren’t all cold loving vodka slugging killers.” “Well, you are” Clint said with a smirk. Natasha just rolled her eyes.

“Ok, that’s absolutely not true. I hate the cold. You should know that by now. I could probably find some kind of alcohol here, but the Doc says that wouldn’t be a good idea. Here, he left this medicine for you, it should help.” Clint gratefully swallowed a couple of pills, then there was an awkward silence as Black Widow sat on the edge of Hawkeye's bed. 

Finally Natasha spoke. “Thank you, for what you did in there.” Clint snorted, “Yeah, you should be thankful that I got my ass handed to me on a silver platter, and that you got to come rescue me.” He was joking, but Natasha looked totally serious. “Clint. They asked about me, didn’t they?” Clint nodded slowly. “Um. Yeah. Just, you know, maybe a few dozen times…… I didn’t say anything, I swear.” Natasha nodded. “I know, and I have to thank you for that. The people who took you- They made me who I was before I started working freelance. I don’t want to talk about it, let’s just say I am not exactly one of their favorite people. If you had told them where I was, or even given them any information about me- I’d probably be dead right now. No, scratch that, I’d be worse than dead.”

Natasha didn’t say anything for a minute, but the haunted look in her eyes made Clint’s stomach churn. “I owe you Barton, thank you. You saved me.” She looked so sad, Clint was tempted to take her hand in his- but deciding he didn’t want both of his arms put in slings, he didn't. “No, it’s nothing, you got me out of there. You saved me. We’re even.”

Natasha shook her head, the haunted look was still in her eyes. “No, you don’t understand what would have happened if you had told them about me. I hope you never understand what would have happened. I just can’t believe that they hurt you, tortured you, and you didn’t turn me in.”

Clint smiled. “Of course I didn’t Tash, we’re partners. I know you would have done the same for me.” Natasha looked doubtful for a second. “I would have?” Clint smirked. “Yeah?” 

Natasha’s eyes looked normal again, much to Hawkeye's relief. She looked like she was just now realizing something. “You’re right. I’d do the same for you, because we’re partners.” Natasha smiled at him, and for some reason Clint wasn’t all that surprised when she took his uninjured hand in hers, and held it. He smiled back at her, and for that brief second, he didn’t even feel the pain of his injuries.

He had finally earned the Black Widow’s trust, maybe this week wasn’t all that bad after all.  
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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please PLEASE feed the author with reviews!!!! They just take a second, and make me so so happy!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay, Clint and Nat now trust one another!! And all it took for that to happen was Clint almost being killed by KGB bad guys ;D What do you all want to see happen next????


	5. Chapter 5

Gorgeous dresses were spread out across the bed, a bag of makeup was spilling across the top of the dresser, and a suitcase stuffed with knifes, guns and arrows was open next to the door of the hotel room. Just another night at work for Team Blackhawk. 

Natasha’s hair was wrapped up in a towel, and she was fending off Clint, who was holding a makeup brush in his hand. “Barton, for the LAST time, back off!! I know how to do my own makeup damn it, and last time I let you do my hair, you died the ends black.” Clint waved the blush brush he was holding through the air, “And it looked amazing! Come on, even you have to admit that. You just didn’t like that I did it without your permission!” Natasha grabbed the makeup from her partners hand, and blocked his way to the dresser before he could grab more. “You have a lot to learn about women Clint, they tend not to like it if you dye their hair without telling them first.” 

Clint was making puppy dog eyes at her now, and Natasha was trying not to smile. “Come on Nat, didn’t I do an amazing job on your eyeliner last time? You get the fun part of the mission, and all I do is stay out in the cold and wait to shoot someone. At least let me help you with makeup! I won’t touch your hair unless you change your mind…. Or I mange to do it without you noticing, and killing me.” A couple of months ago Natasha had bee running late on an undercover mission, and Clint had helped her get ready. Natasha had been shocked when instead of looking awful, the makeup the archer had applied looked- Really good. Though all she had told Clint was that it wasn’t awful.   
He was actually pretty good at her eyeliner….. And she was almost running late….

“Fine!” Natasha sighed, whipping a tube of lipstick at her partner, who deftly caught it. “You have ten minutes. But if I don’t like it, I’m doing it over, and nothing you say will make me feel guilty about that.” Clint just grinned, and grabbing a few things from her makeup bag, sat down across from her on the bed. “What dress are you wearing?” He asked, holding shades of lipstick up to compare them to the various dresses still on the bed. Natasha laid a hand on the short black dress closest to her. “This one, it’s distracting enough for the mark, and has a place to hide the hard drive.” Clint nodded, and began applying eyeshadow for her. 

The room silent for a beat, then Natasha asked, “Where’d you learn to do this anyways?” Clint smirked. “Iv’e only done your makeup what, twelve times, and now you ask me how I know how to do it? Geez Romanoff, I thought your specialty was gathering information on people.” Natasha wanted to smack him, but knew it would probably mess up the eyeliner he was penciling onto her eyes. “Oh, shut up Barton. Most of the times when you’ve done this we’ve been racing the clock, or discussing how to kill a mark, OR get blood stains out of a hotel room so we wouldn’t get arrested.” 

Clint paused what he was doing, then shrugged. “Huh, you’re right. Ok, well, I worked in the circus as a kid. No one had just one job, I, was a star archer, cleaner of various animal cages, feeder or said animals, and I helped the acrobats and ringleader with their makeup.” Natasha scoffed, “Your ringleader?” Clint grinned, “Oh, yeah, that dude was so ugly, trust me, he needed it.” The archer focused for a bit on lightly dusting glitter onto Natasha’s eye lids. “I did face painting too…. For the kids, you know. That was actually really fun. They’d all line up, and ask me to make them a tiger, or a fairy, or a zombie. I once got a kid who asked me to make him into something scary to freak out his sister, so I painted flowers all over his face without telling him. Made the kids parents pretty annoyed, but it was hilarious. Totally worth it.” Clint had a nostalgic look in his eyes now, and Natasha wondered if he ever missed working with the circus. She wouldn’t ask. Not now. They didn’t discuss much about their pasts, it was just a silent agreement the two of them had. It kept things easier. Less painful.

Natasha’s eyelids fluttered as the makeup brush tickled against her skin. “That doesn’t explain how you know how to do hair though. Did you do that too?” Clint chuckled, “No, no, that wasn’t my specialty. But I was friends with the guy who did all that, a trapeze guy, totally idiot daredevil, called himself Star-King or something dumb like that? He was great at doing hair though. Some nights if it was busy I would help him out, he taught me how to french-braid, curl hair, cut hair,” “DYE hair” Natasha interrupted him, smirking in spite of herself. Clint sighed. “Are you ever going to drop that? I dyed your hair. It looked awesome. You got mad about it. Let it go. It won’t happen again, I promise.” Natasha rolled her eyes, “Sure, I know it’s not because you are never touching my hair again.” 

Clint quickly finished applying the makeup, then went to stake out the best place he could wait for his target, when Natasha finished getting ready- And reflected on how her relationship with her partner had changed in the last year or so. Ever since the mission in Russia, things had been different. Natasha had been surprised how quickly you could form a friendship with someone once you decided you could trust them not to kill you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, this was really short, I am sorry!! I didn’t know what else I could add, but I needed this chapter…. The next chapter will mention more of the Avengers, and the relationship between Clint and Natasha will grow even more!!! I really needed this chapter, so I am glad I finally got it written, and hope you enjoyed!! Best review will win a makeover by Clint Barton and Starlord!!!!!!!!!!!

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to make this chapter longer, but need lots of room in the next chapter to explain how Clint Barton will be convinced he should leave Shield and work with the Black Widow. Please review guys!!!!!!!!


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